Peach
by Lets-Celebrate-Me
Summary: There's a new neighbor living across the hall and she's not that bad. / Nick x Jess / AU
1. Cookies

_A/N: Hi guys! First of all, I'd like to thank everyone who's been leaving sweet messages in the oneshots I've published. You guys have no idea what a review, be it a compliment, critic or suggestion can do to a writer. Second, this is my first AU in the Ness section. I was trying to write more oneshots about Ness in their current situation, but it wasn't working, so I decided to start this little story where my main goal is to write about Nick and Jess with their season 1/2 personalities. There will be no drama and angst, just a couple of weirdos developing a flirty friendship. It will be up to you whether I keep going with this or not, I plan on writing 5 or 6 chapters, so really, this is more like a collection of oneshots telling an AU story. A/N 2: The name Peach comes from the song "Peach", by The Front Bottoms, but this is not a song fic. It's just that a few lines of this song remind me of Ness whenever I listen to it and it sort of relates to this fanfic, plus it's such a sweet song and I love it. Anyway, you don't have to listen to it to understand the story. A/N 3: Thank you for choosing Peach to read! If you spot any grammatical mistake, PLEASE let me know! Have a nice reading :D_

x Peach - There's a new neighbor living across the hall and she's not that bad. | Nick x Jess | AU x

Gone were the times when apartment 4D owned the fourth floor. Sure, there were a lot of peculiar people living in 4C that sometimes hit the nerve of Nick Miller: the lady that demanded they got drunk quietly on saturday nights, the dude who had a dog that pooped almost literally everywhere in the building, the grandpa that played Ricky Nelson in an absurd volume on sunday mornings and the couple who had twin daughters that knocked on their door almost every day offering cookies. This last one wasn't so bad, but the guys spent over 100 dollars on chocolate chip cookies and were grateful when they moved out. "There's no money that resists cookies" Winston said when he watched the girls filling a mini van with a bunch of cookie boxes, ready to leave. Apartment 4C remained empty for a good one year, allowing the guys to use the hall as an extension to their drinking games and a place where they dumped Schmidt when the "douchbag jar" was already full, but those good times were over. Boxes had been placed right outside 4C's door and they knew a new neighbor was coming.

The afternoon the new intruder finally moved in, Schmidt showered himself in cologne and put on his best cardigan while Winston worn a "formal" bird shirt. They went together to say a few words of kindness and after three long hours, they came back to the loft.

"You. Missed. Out." Schmidt said, with a big stupid smile on his face. "The girl living across the hall is cute, kind of a weirdo though, but her best friend! Oh Cecelia! Indian goddess that has been placed on earth to bless my body and soul."

"The jar is almost full." Nick replied, not really paying attention to his best friend. Schmidt rolled his eyes.

"You don't understand, my friend. I'm the moon, Cece is the sun and an eclipse is about to happen."

"Good. Jar."

"You still don't understand." Schmidt huffed as he pushed a 10 dollar bill into the jar "She's a model!"

"Yeah." Nick muttered. Seeing that Nick was not interested, Schmidt went to the kitchen after Winston so he could gossip about the new neighbor's best friend.

Days went by and Nick still hadn't got a peek at the girl across the hall. Working as a bartender, he didn't really believe he would so soon: sleeping daytime and working the night shift was sucking out his soul and his new boss was an ass, so he didn't dare being late. The next week, though, he had a day off and was given the task of going grocery shopping. After a lot of protests and a slap on Schmidt's face, he marched to the elevator as if he was heading straight to hell and slammed the button to close the doors, annoyed. When they were almost closing, someone outside yelled "Hold the door!" and put a hand between them, managing to slip inside the elevator. The girl was panting but smiled at Nick.

"Thanks! I didn't really want to use the stairs."

He half smiled back and realized she was kinda cute, but kept his hands in his pockets and stared at the ground. Not even two seconds later, she started talking.

"You're Nick, right, from 4D? I'm Jessica, your new neighbor from 4C. Schmidt and Winston talked a lot about you and I even sent you a batch of cookies as a "Hi". I tried putting as many chocolate chips as possible, but I guess it was a little too much. Winston said they were perfect but then Schmidt said he would like it more if it was zero sugar and fat free."

Nick was so freaked out by Jess's extroverted personality he just looked at her without saying a word. Her dress full of little flowers on it made her seem like she was a Disney princess, trapped in the real world, and he sworn the rats of Cinderella were about to break into that elevator at any minute to bring her a pair of crystal slippers. Her blue eyes (no, _huge_ blue eyes) were staring expectantly at him as if his words were too valuable, but when he took too long to reply, her mouth formed a little "oh" as if perhaps he was mentally incapable of interacting. Carefully choosing her words, she slowly asked again:

"You _are_ Nick, aren't you?" and then she muttered to herself "Am I talking to the right person?"

Nick shook his head. "Yeah, I'm Nick." He obliged himself to smile properly "Nice to meet you. Welcome to the building."

She let out a sigh in relief.

"Thank you! I thought I was going mad" And then she beamed "So, did you like the cookies?"

"I didn't get any."

Jess frowned.

"I sent you a lot of cookies." The elevator chimed and the door opened. She shrugged, dismissing the fact that Winston probably shoved them all in his mouth, and jumped out of the elevator "I'll bake extra ones later. See you!"

An awkward Nick waved goodbye and only managed to walk out the door a few seconds later.

That same night, when the guys were chilling in the living room and Winston was happily pointing out how nice his new green shoes were (they were actually brown, but he didn't want to hear that), someone knocked on the door. None of them made a single move to stand up to see who it was, so Schmidt angrily threw a pillow at the other two and walked up to the door.

"Nicholas, it's for you!" He shouted and went back to the couch. Nick frowned when he saw their new neighbor standing there with a bowl in her hands.

"Hi!" Jess smiled and handed him the bowl "Here are the cookies that I promised you."

"Oh... Uhm, you didn't have to..."

"No, it's okay, I'm taking a tray full of them to the class tomorrow."

Nick raised his eyebrows as he bit one of the cookies. It was great.

"Are you a teacher?"

"I'm a middle school teacher. Kids are always fun to work with."

Nick strongly disagreed with that, but didn't say anything. Instead, he raised the bowl of cookies in appreciation.

"Thanks, Jess, they taste great."

Jess smiled from ear to ear. "You're welcome" She paused, biting her lip. "I... I'll go back to my cave now."

"Okay. See ya around."

She waved goodbye and walked away. Nick spied on her walking back to her apartment, just to see if she was going to lock the door (how did a creature like Jess managed to live by herself without causing any damage, by the way?), and then went back inside with his bowl of cookies. What a weird girl Jess was.

x

_Is it good, is it bad? Leave your thoughts!_


	2. Injured

_Wow, guys! The feedback was incredible! Special thanks to Sammie, who I got to be the secret santa for last year and is one of the sweetest people I have met on tumblr. Rose Coloured Glasses, thank you for your always nice messages, it means a lot! ImJudyGarland, hello tumblr friend :D Janemarie14, I'm glad I could make your day better, this is really good to read. And to everyone else: Thank you thank you thank you again! I hope this second chapter is as good as the first one :) Have a nice reading!_

x x

Nick Miller was not what you can call an observant guy, but he was slowly realizing that interactions between 4D and 4C were becoming a daily thing. Mostly because Schmidt had challenged himself to woo Cece, who was at Jess's apartment almost every day, but also because Jess was subtly becoming friends with the gang. One day, she knocked at their door wearing a yellow apron and a chef hat (or toque, like she later corrected) that read "Chef of the day".

"Wow that's a really yellow apron." Nick said as he checked out her outfit.

"I know, isn't it pretty? I wear it to cooking class every Thursdays with the kids" Jess looked down at her apron and then back at Nick "Do you have sugar?"

He frowned.

"I thought this only happened in the movies but yeah, we have sugar."

"Hi, Jess!" Schmidt's head appeared behind Nick's shoulder "What's the menu?"

"A rainbow cake!" She replied with enthusiasm "I had it saved on my Pinterest board since forever and just now I had the decency of baking it."

"See how she's wearing an apron and toque?" Schmidt said to Nick "These are the first signs that someone cares enough to not poison people who are gonna eat their food. Learn a little, Nicholas."

"The only thing I cook is bacon, butter and my special sauce! And apron is something people wear to avoid getting stuff on their clothes, you nut!"

"It's still valuable. Jess" Schmidt turned to her "Come on in! Let's talk about hygiene in the kitchen."

And Jessica Day, being the extremely observant girl she's always been, failed to realize that her little adventures at apartment 4D could cause her some injuries. Like when she sprained her ankle. Hard. And it all happened because of a beer can.

Here's the thing: True American was something that was happening a lot at the loft. The guys had been playing this game since they all moved in together, but with Jess and Cece bringing extra beer and acting as special characters for the team, things seemed to be funnier with them around plus, Jess got drunk a little too easily and was the "funny and reckless" type of drunk. So, with couches moved aside and a pool of imaginary lava right in the middle of the living room, they started drinking and climbing every possible couch and table to play True American.

"Jess, are you serious right now?" Nick slapped his own forehead, standing on the dinner table "You died ten minutes ago! You should be down there in the lava!"

Jess frowned at Nick. She just played the wrong signs with her hands and screwed all her game, but that didn't mean she died. Sticking her tongue out, she replied:

"I have my secrets, Miller. I made you all believe I played a 2 instead of a 3 and now here I am, queen of the couch!"

"This rule doesn't even exist!" Winston protested, throwing his arms in the air.

"Jess!" Cece shouted from the opposite side of the living room. "Watch out, there's an empty beer can... No, Jess! JESS! THERE'S AN EMPTY CAN -"

Jess wasn't paying attention to what Cece was saying and ended up stepping on an empty beer can, sliding down the couch and falling on the floor. A piercing scream cut through the air and, as Schmidt stood paralyzed and Winston covered his face with his hands, Nick ran up to Jess and kneeled down next to her.

"Are you okay?" He asked, alternating his eyes between Jess's face and her crooked ankle.

"My ankle" She whimpered and pointed to her feet " My ankle, my ankle, my ankle, oh my god!"

"Someone grab a pack of ice!" Cece said as she sat next to Jess and checked her now pink ankle. Schmidt immediately run to the freezer and after looking through every item in it, he shouted:

"THERE'S NO ICE! How come there's no ice? I filled every ice cube tray TWO DAYS AGO!"

"I thought you were going to refill them!" Winston shouted back.

"Are you kidding me, Winston?!"

"Ferguson was thirsty for some cold water, man!"

"wHO THE HELL IS FERGUSON?"

"SHUT UP YOU TWO!" Nick yelled. Jess started sobbing and her ankle was now worse than it was one minute ago: it was swollen and red, indicating it was about to get even uglier if they just sat there waiting for ice to magically appear.

"I think we'll have to see a doctor. Jess, do you mind if I pick you up? Do you think it will hurt more or..."

"Screw it." She sniffed and laced her arms around Nick's neck. "I'm ready to die."

"Oh my god, it's so red. Oh god" Schmidt made a vomiting noise as he saw Jess's foot hanging from Nick's arms and Cece smacked him on the head. They all rushed down the stairs, Nick being extra careful while holding Jess, and used Schmidt's car to go to the nearest emergency, with Jess seated on the back seat and her injured ankle resting on Nick's lap. While Schmidt and Winston started another argument about the ice cubes and Cece googled an hospital near their location, Jess tugged at Nick's shirt lightly:

"If you were Mrs. Rhonda, you would have told me to screw myself."

Nick stifled a laugh. "Who is the hell is Rhonda?"

"My 'ex' neighbor. One day she was sweeping the sidewalks and left her broom there, so I tripped over it. Instead of asking me if I was okay, she checked her broom for any damages. "

"Not the nicest person in the world."

"Nope, not at all." She chuckled "But thank you, Nick, you didn't have to bother."

Nick rolled his eyes and pointed at her ankles.

"You don't have an ankle anymore, you have a mushroom and we have to take care of it. Look at this thing, it even has a face and everything. "

"Ew, it doesn't have a face!"

"It does and it's smiling, it's right here..."

"Ooooouuch, don't touch it!"

"Sorry, sorry, sorry, I regret everything!"

"Hey, mushroom lovers" Cece, who was sitting on the front seat next to Schmidt, turned around and poked Nick "Get Jess and let's go, we're here."

Nick muttered "Yes ma'am" and carefully took Jess's feet off his lap. She circled his neck with her arms and, like they did back in the loft, he took her out of the car and carried her bridal style. Cece narrowed her eyes at the scene and Jess pretended she didn't notice her best friend's giggle as she walked past them to ask for information to the first nurse she saw. Jess didn't care about what Cece was thinking, but one thing she knew for sure: Nick was actually a really sweet neighbor


	3. Nick crashes

_First things first: That finale! What was that! I'm not gonna talk about it in details to avoid giving away spoilers, but wow, no matter how hard it was for us to face season 4, New Girl ALWAYS gives us perfect finales. Kudos to Max Greenfield and Hannah Simone - my Schmece feelings were rose from the dead. Nicholas Miller and Jessica Day, I hate you and I love you. I mostly love you, but still. Also, we'll have to wait until January for season 5? Shame on you, FOX. While we suffer through eight more months, let's comfort ourselves with fanfics and cute gifsets on tumblr. __Have a nice reading! _

_**x x x**_

"Oh, no. No, no, no, no, no, no, no!" Nick patted his pockets desperately. His keys where nowhere to be found and it was 2am of a Sunday. The guys weren't home, both their cell phones were off and all Nick wanted was his bed and a good night's sleep. Those two simple wishes were impossible to accomplish though since his goddamn keys had magically disappeared and he had no idea whatsoever of what to do next.

Turning around and sinking down to the floor, Nick miserably stared at 4C's door. Jess probably wasn't home, right? And if she was, waking her up would be extremely rude. Terrible, terrible idea, Miller.

"What the hell is wrong with my life" Nick moaned into his hands "You're gonna sleep in the hallway, you big loser."

Nick kept arguing mentally with himself until the ground began to feel too uncomfortable and the chilly air made his skin get goosebumps. He huffed, annoyed, and crossed the hall with all the dignity he could find. Nick knocked once. Ten seconds and he knocked twice. More twenty and he knocked three times. After waiting one minute, he started turning around to leave and get his shit together when the door behind him opened. A sleepy Jess, clad in a pink robe that he desperately tried not to stare at , stood in the doorway with her glasses crooked on her face.

"Nick?" She muttered, brows furrowed "Is everything alright?"

He smiled awkwardly and scratched his head. "Hey Jess, I'm so sorry I woke you up, but I, hm, lost my keys and now I can't get in..."

"You need a place to crash?"

"Yeah."

She smiled and gave one step back to let him in - Nick murmured "excuse me", which made Jess giggle, and he kept his head down, walking straight ahead until his eyes could focus only on her face and not on her robe. That was a dangerous robe, my friend.

"I wasn't actually sleeping" She yawned. Nick arched one eyebrow and she corrected herself "I mean, I fell asleep. So many tests to grade, so little time." She nodded to the kitchen table, which was loaded with papers and notebooks.

"But don't you have a whole day tomorrow to do these things?"

"I kinda do, but I'm going on a concert tomorrow afternoon and I didn't want to leave it all to finish last minute."

"Concert?"

"Yeah, the bell group! They are so amazing and you should come too! We can eat popcorn and ask the boys if we can play the bells after the concert!"

Nick scrunched up his nose and shoved his hands in his pockets.

"Nah, I'm not a bell guy." He replied and watched Jess walking up to the table and organizing the tests in little piles of paper "What are you doing?"

"I'm just separating the tests I've already graded from the ones I want to laugh at."

"What?"

"Just wait here a sec." She replied and hurried to her room. Nick didn't even have time to process everything when Jess came back with a purple blanket "It's cold and you're wearing a t shirt."

"It's okay, Jess, I..."

"Shut up, dude" She draped the blanket over Nick's shoulders and winked. He was about to complain but it was so comfy he actually smiled in appreciation. Plus, it smelled like something sweet. It smelled like Jess. "Thanks." Nick said and then pointed to the papers "You were saying..."

"Oh, yeah, the tests!" She chuckled and pulled back a chair to sit "Come here and I'll show you something funny."

Nick sat next to Jess, holding the blanket tight around him. She happily picked a few tests and handed him one.

"Find something you like."

"Okay, Edgar Stuart..." He read the name of the student and started scanning the paper for something interesting "Let's see what you got... Oh, here, he drew a ninja next to the last question. It says 'this ninja prevents any grade lower than B on this test'. "

"Really?" Jess laughed and moved closer to Nick to read it herself "That's a new one."

"Can I write something back?"

"No!"

"Jess, please, I have the perfect reply!"

She raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms.

"_If_ I let you, what would you write back?"

Nick pulled out a red pen from Jess's pen case and smiled. "I'd write" he touched the tip of the pen on the paper and Jess tried to take the test away from him, but Nick was faster and held it up in the air, away from her reach "Just this one, I promise you!"

"What am I gonna tell my students when they see a turtle face drawn on their tests?"

Nick paused.

"Turtle face?"

"Yeah, it's something you do when you...THERE! You're doing it right now!"

Nick frowned and shook his head, pretending to be offended. "Jessica you better take your meds." He moved away from Jess and quickly wrote something down "There you have it."

She rolled her eyes and reached across the table for the paper. When she saw what Nick draw though, she bit her lip to stifle a laugh. Impossible mission. "Are you serious?" Jess asked in between laughs "This ninja has a red pen?"

After that, Nick helped Jess grade her papers until he completely lost track of time. He would write little notes on her students tests and she'd roll her eyes or laugh at them, depending on his level of irony. It was when Jess glanced at her kitchen clock and saw it was almost 4 in the morning that she realized: Nick had been helping her for the past 2 hours.

"Aren't you sleepy?" She nudged him on the shoulder. He made a little "turtle face", like she had said before, and looked at her.

"Dunno. I think a little, but I'm alright."

Jess stood up and offered her hand for him to take. "Come on, the couch is comfy." She helped him up and Nick rubbed his eyes, yawning. "I'm gonna get you a pillow."

"Okay" Nick replied, shoving his hands in his pockets as Jess headed to her room to get a pillow and maybe an extra blanket. He just stood there, taking in the surroundings (pictures with Cece and her family on the shelves, lots and lots of school books and a basket full of yarn balls and needles), when he heard a loud "bang" outside the apartment, as if something heavy had fallen on the ground. After a while, someone cried:

"Why is life so hard?"

Nick rolled his eyes. That was Schmidt. The guys were home and it seemed like they were having a hard time trying to cross the hall and make it to the loft. Jess walked back into the living room in slow steps, listening to the noises outside too. They looked at each other and Nick twisted his mouth, unpleased:

"I guess I'm not locked out of the loft anymore."

Jess bit her lip, trying to think of solutions. Sighing, she walked to the couch and placed the pillow and blanket neatly on it, patting the empty spot with her hand.

"You can still stay here, if you want to." she shrugged "I don't think they'll open that door anytime soon."

Nick could reply in a million different ways. He could say he would just take the key from their hands and open the door himself or that he would still check on them to see if everything was okay (specially Schmidt), but instead Nick chose to say:

"I'll stay."

Jess smiled. Pausing for two seconds, she looked around to check if everything was in place and then waved her hand to say good night.

"I think we're settled then. No monsters under your couch, sir!"

"Jess."

"Yeah?"

He shifted on his spot, with his hands again in his pockets.

"Have a goodnight. And thanks, by the way."

Jess smiled softly in return.

"Anytime, Nick." she said before turning around and make her way to her room. Jess was glad he didn't get to see her cheeks turning pink.


	4. Nick and Ryan

p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"emspan style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"Nothing like a new chapter to start the day *sighs* *9am here*/span/em/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"emspan style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"Thanks to Sammie, Rose Coloured Glasses, EisleyGirl, Amantha3344, NessForever, Louize, Molma and tina1989 for your sweet comments! I hope you guys like this chapter./span/em/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"emspan style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" /span/em/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"emspan style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"x x x x/span/em/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"emspan style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" /span/em/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"Nick and Jess had had their first fight. And because of a guy./span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"It was the end of a boring Monday and everyone decided to go to the bar to relax a little and get a few free drinks from their dear Nick. Schmidt was specially fuzzy because, rumor had it, he got his first kiss with Cece, though she firmly denied whenever someone asked her about it. But the look on her face when she crossed her arms and glanced at Schmidt with the corner of her eye gave it all away./span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""Five shots, my friend" Schmidt rubbed his hands together, excited "It's the beginning of a wonderful week!"/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"Nick raised his eyebrows, unimpressed./span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""Is all this excessive joy about Cece?"/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"Schmidt sighed dreamily and threw arms in the air./span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""This, Nicholas, is the beautiful future I'll have. Rich, married and two beautiful mixed race children."/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""You realize you're indicating the liquor cabinet with this weird movement you're doing, right?"/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""It doesn't matter." He leaned forward with both hands on the counter "Five shots."/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"Nick opened a bottle of vodka and was about to pour the drink into the shot glasses, but before he could do it, he paused. Holding the bottle in one hand, he looked at Schmidt:/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""/spanemspan style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"Five/span/emspan style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" /spanspan style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"shots? Isn't it just you and Winston?"/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"" Jess just got here with her new bimbo. Cece's on her way so I might as well leave one ready for her."/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""Nice." Nick muttered ironically "Can you ask Jess to come here for a sec?"/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""Of course, but first: vodka."/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif, 'Apple Color Emoji', 'Segoe UI Emoji', NotoColorEmoji, 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Android Emoji', EmojiSymbols; font-size: 16px;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;"Nick rolled his eyes, annoyed. He poured four shots and pushed them across the counter for Schmidt. He was about to complain about /spanspan style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"having/spanspan style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;" one less/spanspan style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium;", but Nick indicated Jess with his eyes and Schmidt huffed "Fine!". The bartender watched as his best friend walked back to the booth and leaned in to murmur into Jess's ear. She looked at Nick and said something to the dude sitting next to her that made him stay there./span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""Hey, Miller!" Jess greeted, sitting on one of the stools./span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""Heeey Jess." He replied, not so enthusiastically "Who's that guy that thought he could get one free drink just because he's with a pretty girl?"/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""That was all Schmidt, I have nothing to do with it and we didn't ask for drinks." She shrugged and crossed her arms on the counter. Nick raised one eyebrow./span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""Yeah but who's that dude?"/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"Jess chewed on her lip for a few seconds before replying./span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""That's just Ryan. He's a teacher too and is my coworker, so we were talking earlier today... and you know... stuff."/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""So he's your date?"/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""Yeah." And then she said as if it was no big deal "He asked me out, I think he's nice and good looking, so why not?"/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""Pffff, why not, right?" Nick scrunched up his face in irony "Why is he sitting there like the king of proom though."/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"Jess laid her hands on the counter and looked him straight in the eye./span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""Miller."/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""Day."/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""/spanemspan style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"Be nice/span/emspan style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"!"/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"Nick widened his eyes and raised his hands in the air./span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""I didn't do anything wrong, did I?"/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"She eyed him suspiciously. He rolled his eyes and threw his towel over his shoulder./span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""I mean, it's not like I know him which I obviously don't, but he didn't even look at you over here with me this whole time. I've been watching him with the side of my eye."/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""Well, he's talking to the guys. If you were there, would you be watching me instead of being polite to your date's friend? "/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""/spanemspan style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"Watching/spanspan style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" /span/emspan style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"you, dunno. But definitely at least checking out your butt, hell yeah I would."/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"Jess tried to look really serious and tightened her lips, but then a laugh escaped from her mouth and Nick winked at her. She put one hand on her hip and pointed a finger at him./span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""Sir, I'm gonna bring Ryan here, you two will meet and you're gonna be buddies for life!"/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"Nick frowned./span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""Yeah because I love people, they are the best, more and more friends is all I need."/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"Jess ignored him and turned away to walk over to the booth, where the rest of the gang was still entertained by their girl, Winnie the bish. She came back leading Ryan by the hand and introduced Ryan to Nick, Nick to Ryan. Nick's little sigh when Ryan started talking excitedly about England (ugh, the guy was from England)and the school wasn't lost on Jess -seeing Nick's stiff smile, she told Ryan she just needed to chat with Nick for one minute alone and he nodded, kissing her cheek before returning to their booth. She faced Nick./span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""What's the problem?"/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""He's not a sports guys."/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"Jess frowned and made a big "O" with her lips./span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""/spanemspan style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"That's/span/emspan style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" /spanspan style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"the problem, Nicholas?!"/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"Nick leaned onto the counter./span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""Jess, he said/spanspan style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" /spanemspan style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"'football'/spanspan style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" /span/emspan style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"is not a big deal. Also, he must have a problem with me."/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""You're making no sense!"/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""Of course I'm making sense, Jessica, just, ugh, look at the guy!"/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""I did look at him and he seems fine to me!"/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""I'm sorry I don't like his handsome face and fancy accent and nice clothes! And I'm sorry he doesn't like/spanspan style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" /spanemspan style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"football!"/span/em/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"Jess slammed her hand on the bar angrily./span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""No,/spanspan style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" /spanemspan style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"I'm/spanspan style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" /span/emspan style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"sorry I actually care about what my friends think of people that I date!"/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""Why does my opinion matter to you?"/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""Because/spanspan style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" /spanemspan style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"you/spanspan style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" /span/emspan style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"matter to me!"/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""Hey hey, guys, what's going on?" Cece suddenly appeared, putting her hand on Jess's shoulder and intercalating her eyes between Jess and Nick's red faces. Nick shook his head and turned away to organize liquor bottles on the shelves./span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""Nothing." Jess forced a smile to Cece "I'm just tired. And I'm an idiot. Can you tell Ryan I'm going home, I don't really want to talk to anyone right now."/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""Wha-... but you-..." Cece stuttered and Jess just grabbed her purse and walked away. As her best friend left, Cece stretched her arm across the counter to poke Nick's back. He turned to her and she inquired:/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""What did you do?"/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""I didn't do anything wrong, okay" He said, with a towel in one hand and a glass in another "She's just mad that I didn't like her boyfriend, I guess."/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"Cece huffed./span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""Nick, Jess cares a lot, specially about our opinion."/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""Yeah, that's what she said to me."/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""So why couldn't you at least pretend that you liked Ryan, who by the way is the hottest and most charming man in this bar?"/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""Hey."/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""Sorry."/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"He sighed and casted a look towards the booth. Ryan wasn't there anymore and he probably went after Jess, since she left just a couple minutes ago. Nick grabbed some wet glasses to distract himself and, as he wiped them dry with the towel, he replied without looking at Cece:/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""Because I feel like he's not the right one for Jess. I don't know though, I could be wrong."/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"Cece narrowed her eyes. She went silent for so long that Nick looked up and raised an eyebrow./span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""What?"/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""Uhm... nothing. I think you should ask to leave earlier today and go back to the loft. Try and talk to her."/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"Nick stared at Cece, thinking about what she suggested. Maybe she was right and he should talk to her instead of letting it go - being the sentimental little monster that Jess was, she would probably throw daggers at him with her eyes for the rest of their lives in case he didn't apologize./span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"Or maybe she would just ignore him forever. Which was way worst./span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"Dropping his towel on the counter, Nick grabbed his keys and phone./span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""Cece, can you tell Big Bob that I had to leave early for special reasons?" He rushed towards the exit of the bar "Thanks!"/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"Cece rolled her eyes./span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""Why is everyone thinking I'm a messenger?"/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"On the way back home, Nick felt like there was this big monster pulling on his shirt. He realized he was, indeed, kind of an ass to Jess and that she didn't deserve the way he talked about her friend/date/boyfriend or whoever that Ryan guy was, so he stopped along the way to buy Jess some flowers from an old lady to properly apologize. Praying in his head that she wasn't sleeping, or worst, that Ryan wasn't there with her, Nick knocked on 4C's door and waited. A sulky faced Jess answered it and crossed her arms when she saw Nick standing there with flowers in his hands./span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""Jess, I'm sorry for the way I behaved in the bar. I don't really know why... I don't know why I said that I don't like him or whatever bullshit I said, just, you know, ignore me. I mean, ignore what I said but here, don't ignore the flowers" he handed her roses "The lady made a buy 3, get 4 discount for me. I told her it was an emergency."/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"Jess glanced at the flowers in her hands. Nick shoved his hands in his pockets, nervous with the lack of answer from her, but then he felt a wave of relief when she looked at him and cracked a smile./span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""You annoy the hell out of me sometimes, Miller."/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""It happens, Day."/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""It's okay." She shrugged "Now that I think about it, Ryan wasn't the right guy. He's just a friend."/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"Nick raised his eyebrows./span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""Really? What made you change your mind?"/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"She scrunched up her nose in a cute way and played with some petals between her fingers./span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""He's waaay too good, it's like he's from a Disney movie. Or fancy british version of Justin Timberlake."/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""Sometimes I don't know whether you're serious or not."/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""I'm serious now, you angry old man." And then she sighed "He could be the most perfect guy, but I'm not the perfect girl. Besides, underdogs are kind of my thing."/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"Nick laughed./span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""I can't believe you."/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""What?"/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""Jess, you're the girl every guy would want to be with! You're brilliant and weird, you wear those little skirts and stuff, sometimes you think you're funny but you're not and that's okay! Never say you're not good enough, woman, for god's sake!"/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"Jess was taken aback by Nick's words. She opened her mouth to reply but no words came out, so Nick took a deep breath and looked at her surprised face./span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""What now?"/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""Did you just say, and I quote, 'you wear those little skirts'?"/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""Out of everything I said, you choose to talk about the skirts?!"/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""Do you really check me out?"/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""You check me out too, don't think I have never noticed it!"/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""That's a lie!"/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""You look at my butt when I turn around, we have mirrors in the bar you know!"/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""Nicholas you're so wrong, I never check you out!"/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""No, you mean 'Nicholas, you're so right'! Also, when I came back from my forced jogging session with Schmidt last week and I was feeling like I was gonna die trying to use the stairs, you watched me taking my shirt off! I SAW IT! YOU WERE IN OUR LOFT THAT DAY"/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""OH MY GOD, SHUT UP!" She yelled back in mid astonishment/amusement. "You said when we were in the bar that IF YOU WERE RYAN, YOU WOULD CHECK ME OUT"/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""Well that was a hypothesis!"/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""No, it actually happens!"/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""YEAH IT SOMETIMES HAPPENS BUT/spanspan style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" /spanemspan style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"JUST/spanspan style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" /span/emspan style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"SOMETIMES!"/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""NICHOLAS!"/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""I regret nothing. Good night." he moonwalked back to his apartment and Jess tried to grab him by the hand, but he was faster. Before Nick ran into his apartment, he shouted:/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""I'M NOT SORRY FOR THIS!" And slammed the door shut. Jess closed hers as well and sighed:/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""Well, me neither."/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" /span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"x x x/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" /span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12pt; font-family: -webkit-standard;"emspan style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"A little argument doesn't count as drama, does it? eh./span/em/p 


	5. Wedding

p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-family: -webkit-standard;"emspan style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"Heey, I'm here!/span/em/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-family: -webkit-standard;"emspan style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"Pretty ladies and gentlemen I have to thank for their lovely reviews: Rose Coloured Glasses, EisleyGirl (is there any chance your user is related to the band Eisley? Nah?) , ImJudyGarland, Jonap93, Scribbled Pretty, Louizy and guests!/span/em/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-family: -webkit-standard;"emspan style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"I've been having some hard time trying to finish oneshots because I have multiple ideas at the same time and geez it's so overwhelming! I just want to squeeze everything into one story but we all know that doesn't look good, eh./span/em/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-family: -webkit-standard;"emspan style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"I hope you like this chapter :) Have a nice reading!/span/em/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-family: -webkit-standard;"em /em/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-family: -webkit-standard;"strongemspan style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"x x x/span/em/strong/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-family: -webkit-standard;"strongem /em/strong/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"Jess shifted in her seat, holding back the urge of taking off her heels./span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"She was at Schmidt and Nick's friends wedding as Nick's date and the only two reasons she agreed to go were: Cece was there with Schmidt and wanted to have her best friend's company around and, most important, Nick's silly way of asking her to be his date. She just couldn't say no./span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""Hi Jess...ica" He swallowed hard, standing in her doorway with a white envelop in his hands "Food? Champagne? Prom?"/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"And she smiled. And said yes. And now there she was: wearing a fancy dress with fancy shoes and drinking too much to try and numb the pain in her toes. It wasn't working./span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""What's wrong, Jess?" Nick asked, sitting next to her and watching her pained expression as she rubbed her feet together "Is it the heels?"/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""Yeah. I really want to take these off but I have to keep my lady pose."/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"Nick shook his head and placed his champagne glass on the table. Kneeling in front of her, he reached for her black shoes and started slipping one of them off, but she jerked her foot away./span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""Come on Jess, these hooker heels are not gonna work for ya anymore."/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""I'm gonna be the only one with bare feet here and it's not even midnight."/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""Bullshit." He took her feet in his hands and slipped the heels off them. "Better?"/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"She sighed in relief as he gave her small feet a slight squeeze./span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""You have no idea."/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"Nick chuckled and Jess smiled at him in appreciation. He pushed himself to stand and sat next to her again - before he could say anything, a pop song started to play and Cece ran up to Jess with a drink in her hand, smiling like it was Christmas./span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""Come on, it's our song! We have to dance!"/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"Jess's eyes went wide as she recognized the beat of Spice Girls and Cece grabbed her hand, taking her to the middle of the dance floor. Nick shook his head, amused, as he watched Jess dance to/spanspan style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" /spanspan style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"emWannabe /embarefootem /em/spanspan style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"like there was no tomorrow and like her feet were not being crushed by torture heels just moments ago. He could bet she wasn't even thinking about that anymore: all that Jess seemed to care was her moves (which were weird, but somehow he liked them) and singing as loud as she could. She looked damn pretty in her pink dress while she swirled around to the song and Nick made a mental note to invite her over for a/spanspan style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" /spanemspan style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"Just Dance/span/emspan style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" /spanspan style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"night at the loft - this way, he could laugh at Schmidt's/spanspan style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" /spanemspan style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"plies/span/emspan style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" /spanspan style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"and smile at the wavy moves she did with her hands./span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"A little girl was near Jess and Cece on the dance floor and she sloppily danced, her small feet making one move at a time. Jess approached her and kneeled to the girl's height, saying something that made the child giggle. Then they started dancing together as Jess taught her all her moves (chicken dance included). Nick was so lost in his thoughts watching them there that he didn't notice the bride taking a seat next to him./span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""Your girlfriend is one of a kind. I wish I could take my heels off too and crazy dance." she said, massaging her ankles "I was actually going to but then my sister told me to hold off on this decision until at least I get drunk."/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"Nick's head snapped over to the bride./span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""Oh, hey Heather. That's Jess, she's my..."/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""Jess seems cool. Speaking of getting drunk, can I drink your champagne?" Heather reached for the glass of champagne and took a sip, feeling relieved "That's better. So, apparently she's great with kids too, look how Lily is dancing with her! My niece is not that comfortable around strangers but she's totally fine with Jess."/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"Nick cracked a smile as he looked back at Jess and the little girl./span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""She's a middle school teacher."/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""That explains a lot." She winked "Gotta go, Ben is over there and I think he wants to dance? Anyway, I want to meet your girl later. Heather stood up and placed her glass on the table "Thanks for the champagne!"/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""You're welcome" Nick replied, but she was already crossing the dance floor towards her now husband./span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" /span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"Heather thought Jess was his girlfriend and he didn't even try to correct her again. Funny. Nick felt something tickly in his belly when he thought of that./span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" /span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"The song was over and Jess and Cece made their way back to their table. Jess flopped down on the chair next to Nick and panted./span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""That was great! Did you see my moves? I even taught a little girl some of them! She thought they reminded her of a dinosaur dancing around but she did them anyway." She shrugged and looked at Cece "Hey, where's your clutch? I need some extra bobby pins."/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""Oh, damn, I forgot!" Cece smacked her own forehead "Schmidt's with it."/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"Nick laughed./span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""Why would he be with your stuff? It's not like your thing matches his suit."/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""I told him to hold my clutch while I went to the restroom. Turns out Wannabe is my jam and I was washing my hands when it started to play, so I just ran out the door to get Jess and left him there." She sighed "I'll go look for him, be right back."/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"They watched Cece walking away and disappearing through the small crowd of people on the dance floor. After awhile in silence, Jess lightly elbowed Nick./span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""What were you saying to Heather?"/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"Nick shrugged./span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""Stuff."/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""But what stuff?"/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"He looked at her and raised an eyebrow./span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""Too nosey, Day."/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"Jess hugged his arm and whined jokingly./span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""But I want to know! Besides, I saw you guys looking at me... Was it because of my feet?"/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""Jessica, stop obsessing over your feet, they are fine. And Heather was saying how much she wanted to take her shoes off too but couldn't because she's the bride."/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""You should've told her it's okay." She smiled and leaned her head on his shoulder, still holding his arm "Because I'm pretty sure I would have no feet right now if it was up to me."/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""Yup, I'm pretty sure too."/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"After a great night and a very drunken Heather throw her expensive stiletto heels out the window, it was time to go home. They dropped off Cece first at her apartment and then headed straight to the loft, Schmidt whining all the time about how he was too damn sober to his liking (he was the only one who didn't drink since he was sorted to be the driver of the night). Winston walked, no,/spanspan style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" /spanemspan style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"crawled/spanspan style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" /span/emspan style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"into the loft to pass out on his bed and Schmidt paused in the doorway when he saw Nick heading to the opposite side of the hall towards 4C with Jess./span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""Hey, Nicholas!" Schmidt called out "Where do you think you're going?"/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""I'm walking my date to her door, Schmidt." and at Schmidt's skeptical face, he said "Go sulk in your room and don't lock the door."/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"Schmidt rolled his eyes but turned around, closing the door behind him. Nick shook his head and looked at Jess./span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""I don't know why we're best friends. Anyway" He smiled "Thanks for coming, Jess, it was really cool."/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"Jess leaned forward and picked the hem of her dress as if she was a princess. Using a british accent, she replied:/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""I've had a lovely evening, sir."/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""Aaand there she is."/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""I can impersonate the Queen too."/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""I think we're good for the night."/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"She bumped her fist lightly on his shoulder./span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""Thank/spanspan style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" /spanemspan style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"you/spanspan style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" /span/emspan style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"for the invite. It was fun, though there was this random six year old kid that pushed me out of the way to get the bouquet and this old man that asked me if my hair was actually extensions."/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""You/spanspan style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" /spanemspan style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"do/spanspan style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" /span/emspan style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"have a lot of hair."/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"She pouted and Nick chuckled./span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""It's a pretty hair though. Really pretty." He leaned in and kissed her forehead goodnight. Her eyes fluttered shut and she could swear she felt something funny inside her chest. When they opened again, Nick was already walking away. "See ya tomorrow, Day."/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""See you tomorrow, Miller." Jess replied as she felt her forehead getting hot and watched him walk back to his apartment. Before she went inside, Nick called out her name from the other side and she stuck her head out the door./span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""Yeah?"/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""We are having a/spanspan style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" /spanemspan style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"Just Dance/span/emspan style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" /spanspan style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"marathon here tomorrow night. Schmidt always does these really weird moves and I think you could beat him. Wanna come?"/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"Jess pretended to think about his question./span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""Yeah...I'm gonna ignore the/spanemspan style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" /spanspan style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"I think you could beat him/span/emspan style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" /spanspan style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"part and just say yes."/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"Nick flashed her a big smile./span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""Then it's a deal."/span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"She smiled back, feeling her stomach jump inside her body with excitement./span/p  
p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-family: -webkit-standard;"span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;""It is a deal."/span/p 


	6. Exes

_A/N: Oh hi, I'm alive :D I don't know why I took so long to update, but I did and I'm sorry. Like I said before, I have so many ideas and life's a bitch. This chapter is longer than usual but whatever, I liked how it turned out. As always, if you see something wrong (I haven't proofread this baby because I'm at work right now and I just wanted to post it as soon as I could) please let me know! Thank you everyone who left a review for the previous chapter, you all have a special place in my heart 3_

_**xxxx**_

_"Hey Nick, it's me... Uhm, Caroline. I know it's been a year since we've last spoken to each other, but I was going through my stuff and I remembered that some of my clothes are still with you. My blue cardigan and that floral blouse that my mom gave me... Can I stop by to pick them up or, I don't know, maybe you can come over? Anyway, call me when you can. Bye!"_

Nick held his phone away from his ear and stared at the screen for what felt like an eternity. He never, _ever _thought he was gonna hear about Caroline again, not after everything they had been through the past year - well, _he_ had been through. After a couple years together and being in a relationship that was not going so well between them (at least that was what Caroline had said), she broke up with him on a Sunday afternoon and made it clear that she didn't want any contact with Nick or whatsoever. Needless to say, he spent months in hell trying to get her back and crying around the loft and now... he was completely over her. Nick was damn sure he was absolutely over Caroline.

Was he?

"Did they announce the extinction of beer or what?" Winston chuckled, flopping down on the sofa next to Nick "What happened, man?"

"I..." Nick cleared his throat, throwing one last glance at his phone before looking at Winston "Caroline called. There's some stuff of hers here and she wants them back."

"Oh." Winston paused, knowing the impact of that unexpected fact on his friend."Is she coming here?"

"I don't know, she actually left a voice message and asked me to call her back." Nick threw himself against the cushions "Ughhh, this is so hard."

The door opened and Schmidt and Jess walked in, each holding three garment bags. Jess sat on the couch across the room and huffed.

"How do you live with Schmidt? He's worse than Cece when it comes to shopping!"

"It's not like we shop with him anyway, we've learned our lesson." Winston replied, shrugging. Schmidt rolled his eyes and grabbed the bags from Jess's lap.

"I thought I could use some feminine help picking a suit for the office's party next week, but no, Jess likes disappearing through the women's department and suggesting black cats patterned ties to match my black shirt!"

"They were so cute!" Jess chuckled and turned to look at Nick. She noticed the lack of ironic comments and his frowned face and waved her hand to get his attention "Hey Nick, what's the matter?"

"Weird stuff." He mumbled, with his arms crossed. Jess raised an eyebrow, confused, and glanced at Winston in a silent question. He shook his head.

"His ex-girlfriend called and she wants to come over to get her clothes back."

"Caroline?!" Schmidt's eyes widened.

"Ex-girlfriend?" Jess frowned.

"It's been what, more than a year you guys broke up?" Schmidt placed his garment bags down on the couch and put his hands on his hips "Sorry but I smell 'fake gold' digger! Besides, did you tell her you used to wear the clothes she wants back to cry and drunk dial her?"

"You wore her clothes?" Jess's jaw dropped and Nick threw a cushion at Schmidt, hissing "shut up" at him. After managing all the embarrassment Schmidt just gave him in front of Jess, Nick sighed and looked at her.

"That girl put me down, okay? I would do anything to get her back and, I don't know, I just kept calling her and acting stupid and ugh" he huffed, annoyed at himself "I was stupid. That's all."

"I see." Jess replied, mulling it over for a few seconds. "Do you still like her?"

Jess's question took Nick aback. He actually wasn't sure how to answer that - after so many attempts of getting Caroline back and failing miserably, he learned how to live without her in his life and move on without any form of contact with her. He didn't text, didn't call and hell, he even managed to stop checking out her facebook page after spending nights crying because of a check-in in a cool bar with some random dude. Nick was fine without Caroline.

But did that mean he stopped liking her?

"I guess I don't." He replied, in an unsure voice. Winston and Schmidt made an annoyed sound and Jess tried to be as cheerful as possible.

"If you don't, then everything will be okay, right?" She reached for his phone and put it right in his hand "Come on, call her and say she can come to pick up her clothes anytime she likes."

"Ha, I'm not calling her. Nope."

"Okay, as your best friend" Schmidt announced "I cannot let the humiliation..."

"There's no humiliation."

"...that I see here happen. We are gonna call your _ex_ girlfriend - notice how I said _ex_ meaning you are _not_ getting back together with her - and tell this lady she is welcome into our home to grab her Target cardigan and tear stained blouse and leave. Come on Nicholas."

"You're a nut and _we_" Nick pointed at Schmidt, Winston and Jess, getting up from the sofa "are not calling anyone. _I _will _text _her and be cool and casual and act however I want."

Jess watched as Nick angrily kicked a cushion out of his way and marched to his own room. She didn't know why she felt bothered by this situation, but one thing was certain: she wasn't comfortable - it's like she didn't expect to have someone else to acknowledge Nick, even if this person was an ex. Knowing how dumb that sounded, Jess shook that feeling away and walked up to Nick's door. Before she could go down the hall though, Schmidt called her name.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"Uh... I'm going to help Nick with this issue."

"Jess, that's dangerous territory" Winston said, reaching for the control remote and turning the TV on "Schmidt and I _suffered _over this break up for like three months and Nick took way longer than that to get over it."

"He cried a lot." Schmidt shuddered and Jess crossed her arms.

"Guys, Nick needs _closure _and as his friend and, specially, as a woman, I'm gonna help him get that." She turned on her heels and walked down the hall "Don't wait for us!"

Schmidt rolled his eyes and sat next to Winston to watch TV. Jess knocked on Nick's door once and when he said "Come in", she pushed the door open and flopped down the bed next him.

"What do you want, weirdo?"

She smiled widely and hugged his arm.

"I'm gonna teach you how to deal with this situation. Lesson number one, we're sending her a voice message, not a text. "

He tried to look annoyed, but her goofy smile and happy blue eyes didn't allow that. Sighing, he comfortably set himself beside Jess and handed her his phone.

"Try to not make me sound stupid, alright, I've had enough of that. Now, what should I say?"

xxxxxx

Nick glanced at the time in his phone one more time. Caroline called him - _at the loft, just to pick up her stuff _\- and said she would be there at six. It was five to six and, unfortunately (or not), one of her abilities was punctuality - he swept his hands on his pants one more time.

Stealing a glance at Jess, who was at the kitchen heating up water for tea, Nick instantaneously felt calmer. Even after she helped him getting in touch with Caroline, he wasn't sure about asking her to be there when his ex knocked at his door, but she was so cool about it all that he actually felt relieved, since Schmidt and Winston wouldn't be home at that time. He involuntarily smiled at the sight of her adjusting her glasses and walking up to him with a mug of hot tea in her hands.

"So, did Caroline text or something?" Jess sat down next to Nick on the couch "It's six o'clock."

"No, but she'll be here anytime now. It's a rare thing for her to be late, or at least it was. So,those cupcakes you baked this morning..."

"How do you know I baked cupcakes?"

"I can smell them from here."

Just in time, someone knocked at the door and Nick looked at Jess with wide eyes. She reached out and gave him a light squeeze on the hand.

"Take her clothes" she nodded towards the folded blouse and cardigan sitting on top of the coffee table "Give it to her and ask if she wants some tea. Be a polite boy, Miller."

"Do I look like a sixty year old granny to offer people tea?"

"Just do it, dude."

" Okay, mom."

"Shut up." Jess chuckled and pointed at the door "Come on, she's waiting!"

Nick sighed and took Caroline's clothes in his arms. As he slowly walked towards the door, he thought about everything he could be expecting at that very moment: a punch in his heart, a pain in his stomach, a feeling of sadness or regret washing over him, heartache sensation, etc etc. But what he did not expect when he saw his ex girlfriend standing there waiting for him was to... smile.

"Hey" Nick friendly greeted Caroline.

"Hi!" She enthusiastically greeted him back and threw an arm around his shoulder to give him a half hug "How have you been?"

"I've been great, thanks." He lifted her clothes mid-air "I guess this is yours?"

"Yeah" She chuckled and Nick handed her the cardigan and the blouse "Thanks for... Well, for keeping them. It was really nice of you."

"No problem. You wanna come in?"

"Sure."

When Caroline walked into the loft and noticed Jess sitting on the couch, zipping through TV channels, Nick noticed she hesitated a little. Caroline gave him an awkward smile and held on tighter to her clothes in her arms.

"Is this your new roommate?"

"This is Jess, she lives across the hall and is my friend." He scratched his head "Hey Jess, this is Caroline."

"Oh." Caroline paused. "So _this _is Jess."

Jess happily set her mug down on the coffee table and stood up to shake Caroline's hand. Nick could tell Caroline was freaking out inside a little bit: her smile was tight, she dropped Jess's hands as soon as she could and made sure to set a good distance between she and Jess once they were side by side. It was almost as if Jess was the one who was dating him now.

"Nick told me you were coming over so I made tea" Jess said as she walked to the kitchen. She looked at Caroline over her shoulder "Do you want some? There are cupcakes too! I baked two trays of them this morning, I could totally get one for you. Or two."

"No, I'm good with just tea, thanks."

"You can get one for me."Nick said and Jess rolled her eyes at him in a playful way.

"As if you needed to ask, turtle face" Jess turned to Caroline "This guy stops by my apartment almost every day before going to work to check if I have any food. He's like Yogi Bear and thinks _he's smarter than the av-er-age bear_. "

"Your imitation game is terrible, Jessica."

"It's actually great and you know it." She replied and turned back to the stove. Nick shrugged and shoved his hands in his pockets.

"So, how's work, your family...?"

The conversation flowed smoothly amongst the three of them, but it wasn't like they were all friends. Soon Caroline found a way to leave early and thanked Jess for the tea; Nick walked her to the door and she gave him the same hug she did when she first got there, but this time less excited.

"Thanks again. It was...nice to see you."

"Nice to see you too. Long time, right?"

"Yeah." She then hesitated a little, but spoke anyway " I'll be around this week, you know, so if you want to grab a coffee or talk, just call me."

Nick's mouth formed a small "o". Nick from a year ago would have given everything to have Caroline standing in his doorway, asking him to call her and grab a coffee. It was all he dreamed of for months. But now... he didn't know. Nick was having some actual progress on his professional life for the first time and he even felt that his friends had grown closer to him since Caroline was gone, so going back to her after everything he had gone through felt like regress. Plus, when Nick saw her that day, he was 99% sure he was no longer in love with her.

He didn't know why he was so sure about that though. He just did.

"I'll get back to you later about it, okay?" He said, taking Caroline completely by surprise. She took a few seconds to reply, and when she did, she just smiled awkwardly and said "Okay". They waved good bye and as Caroline walked down the stairs of the building to leave, Nick felt two arms squeezing his ribs as if he was a freaking teddy bear.

"Sooo" Jess looked up at him "How did that go? Do I need to get emergency cupcakes right now to make you feel better? "

He looked down at her big blue eyes and couldn't help but smile. Damn that pretty face of hers.

"Everything turned out just fine, Jessica, thanks for asking, but I do think I need emergency cupcakes."

"Chocolate ones?"

"That's right."

Jess giggled and let go of him. As she jumped up and down across the hall towards her own apartment, something occurred to Nick: He wasn't 99% sure he wasn't in love with Caroline anymore. He was 100%.

xxxxx

"Hi Caroline. _Nick, voice!_ Hiii Caroline. I got your message _*pause of three seconds and the sound of a slap on someone's arm * _Awch, Jess, what the hell? _Keep going._ _*sound of a sigh* _I got your message and yeah, you can stop by. Your clothes are here and they... they are clean. They were never used. So yeah, we'll be waiting. Bye! *_you could do better.* *I'm sorry if I didn't make you happy, Jess* *You forgot to hang up* *Oh,shit!*_


	7. Smell

_"I plan on writing 5 or 6 chapters" I said on the first chapter lmao I tend to get too excited about my stories and I always overwrite, always. I have some fun chapters planned ahead but will Peach have 10 chapters or 100? Who knows. I certainly don't (I kinda do though but let's say I don't). Anyways, thanks everyone who left reviews, I replied each one of you, and thanks for still reading Peach. Until next chapter!_

x x x

**7\. Smell**

"Hey Nick"

_"Yeah?"_

"Did I leave my lyrics book in there? I can't find it here and I've searched everywhere!"

_"It's in my bedroom, you forgot it there yesterday when you needed to make a call."_

"Oh, right. Just a sec."

This has been happening a lot between 4C and 4D: the guys and Jess hung out at each other's place almost every day, so occasionally someone left their wallet or keys behind. On one hand Schmidt forgot his phone only once on Jess's coffee table at the living room but it never happened again since he was really careful with his own stuff, on the other Winston or Nick left a hoodie or their copy of the loft's key at her apartment all the time. It was basically "if it's not here, then it's at Jess's / at the guys's".

Nick had stopped by Jess's to have her opinion on the novel he was writing and ended up leaving his black hoodie on the couch. He realized it happened when he was already back in his room ready to go to sleep, but honestly, he didn't care: Nick knew it was there so he could take it back the next day. Plus, he owned like a hundred hoodies so he sure wouldn't run out of them if one was not in his closet. Jess, though, had run out of pajamas: she pulled open her closet's door that night and noticed she unintentionally had put them all in the dirty clothes basket for laundry . Cursing herself for having forgotten to leave at least one clean so she could use it to sleep in, Jess walked out of her bedroom toward the laundry room to take one shirt out of the basket. When she was crossing the living room, her eyes caught sight of the hoodie laying there on the couch, looking cozy - and most important, clean.

"Nick won't mind, right?" Jess said to herself, holding the hoodie in her hands. Shrugging, she slid her arms into the sleeves and zipped it closed - she literally sighed in satisfaction as the sweatshirt fell perfectly on her body and the smell filled the air around her: a mixture of old spice, downy powder and natural Nick scent (something she instantaneously made up in her head but that actually existed). Jess never really noticed how good Nick smelled so she sniffed the fabric one more time and involuntarily smiled. It was _good_. Really good.

Days went by and Nick never asked for the hoodie back. Jess even thought about mentioning it to him again to check if maybe he was missing it, but she hesitated every time she tried: who would want to return such a good pajama like that hoodie? It was comfy, warm and it smelled like a man. Perfect.

"It's like Nick's your boyfriend but he doesn't know it" Cece chuckled one night, when she came over and Jess was changing into the hoodie and a pair of shorts.

"Ugh, I know, but I don't even have to wear a shirt underneath it. And here, smell it" Jess leaned towards Cece so she could smell the the hood and the hems of the sweatshirt. She scrunched up her nose a little and pointed at Jess.

"Old spice and what, one week it's not been washed?"

Jess blushed and did not reply. Reality slowly came crashing in and Cece's mouth formed a big "O".

"No!"

"What?"

"Oh my God"

"What?"

"You didn't wash it so the smell don't go away! It's not only about comfort!"

"Cece, this is ridiculous..."

"You like Nick."

"I don't."

"You do."

"It's not that, okay? Just because I like a certain smell that happens to come from a certain person it doesn't mea-... Did you hear that?"

Cece raised an eyebrow.

"What?"

"Someone knocked on the door, I think." Jess zipped the hoodie and turned around to walk out the room "This conversation is not over!"

"You bet it's not!" Cece called out as Jess made her way to the hall. When she turned the knob and pushed the door open, her eyes widened instantaneously.

"Hey Jess, do you have... Oh." Nick paused when he saw what Jess was wearing. She noticed his adam's apple moving up and down in his throat when staring at the old black hoodie and wondered if she was about to get into too much trouble. When Nick kept silent, Jess spoke:

"You used to call me before coming over, Miller."

He shook his head as if trying to come back to reality.

"Yeah, I, hm... I did. Three times. You didn't pick it up."

Jess sighed, annoyed with herself. She must have forgotten her phone on silent mode after leaving school that afternoon and clearly that's why Cece was so mad when she got there and asked "Don't you have a phone?". Scrunching up her nose, she said:

"Sorry, I guess I didn't hear it."

"It's fine."

"I will...hm, make sure to check my calls... later." Jess replied, already feeling her cheeks growing red. She was completely aware of the fact that Nick was seeing her in a hoodie and pajama shorts AND, to top it off, that he knew the hoodie was his. He cleared his throat and nodded to her clothes.

"So, my hoodie?"

"Your hoodie."

He smiled.

"You look nice in it."

Jess's first instinct was to giggle like she always did when someone complimented her and run away back to her room, but then she remembered Cece was there and she would have to come back and talk to Nick anyway. Also, it wasn't a bad situation since he wasn't making that stupid/cute turtle face of his - he was smiling shyly and Jess was pretty sure she melted inside a bit while staring at his face. Shoving her hands in the pockets and returning his smile, she said:

" Thanks, Nick." and then she quickly explained "I was going to give it back to you but I always forgot and you didn't mention anything about it, so..."

"No, it's cool" he waved it off "I have so many that I didn't miss it. You can, uhm, keep it. If you want it, of course."

Jess's eyes widened.

"Really?"

"Yeah."

A big smile cracked on her face and she stood on her tiptoes to give him a kiss on the cheek.

"You're the best."

"I know."

"Shut up." She smacked him playfully and he chuckled. An apron-clad Schmidt stepped out 4D's door on the other side of the hall and yelled.

"Nicholas, have you forgotten about your mission or what?!"

"Damnit" Nick whispered under his breath and turned to Schmidt "Can't you give me 5 seconds?!"

"My Peach and Vanilla pie cannot give you five seconds! And is that..." Schmidt's eyes widened and he pushed his neck back in a 'No way!' move "Is that your hoodie that Jess's wearing?! You never let anyone touch your hoodies!"

Nick ignored Schmidt and turned to face Jess.

"I almost forgot, Schmidt wanted me to check if you have vanilla sugar."

"Oh I actually do, just wait here a sec."

As Jess walked into her apartment to get the sugar, Cece stuck her head out the front door, glancing between Nick and Schmidt.

"What's going on here?"

"Oh hey, Cece!" Schmidt basically ran across the hall towards 4C's door "How have you been? Feeling good? Wanna come over and try my Peach and Vanilla puff pastry pie? I got the recipe from Oprah's site."

"Get lost, Schmidt."

"Only if it's with you, you beautiful goddess."

As Schmidt and Cece did some flirtatious/agressive mingling, Nick peeked a look inside and saw Jess coming back holding a cup of sugar in her hands. She flashed him a subtle but sweet smile and when he smiled back, she had to look down at her feet to hide her way too excited face. She cleared her throat to interrupt Cece and Schmidt and handed Schmidt the cup of sugar.

"Here's your vanilla sugar, sir."

"Thank you, Jessica." He paused and scanned the hoodie. Throwing an incredulous glance at his best friend, he said "Seriously, Winston was going to wash some of these _things _for you last week and you didn't even let him get them out of your laundry basket."

"But WHY? Those were my hoodies, I should wash them, I _know _how to wash them!"

The guys walked back to their apartment after waving goodbye to the girls, arguing about petty things between themselves until they closed the door. Cece and Jess stood in the doorway with their arms crossed, and when Cece realized Jess still had her eyes on 4D's door, she giggled.

"What?" Jess asked, looking at her best friend.

"You've got it bad."

"Cece."

"_Baaaaaad." _

"Ugh, can't you forget about this?"

"So bad." Cece paced back to Jess's room, still giggling. Jess rolled her eyes, but did not close the door before giving one last glance at 4D.

x x x

_N/A: The Peach and Vanilla puff pastry pie was really found on Oprah's site on a list named "Sexy Vanilla Recipes". I just had to use it with Schmidt._


	8. Burglar

_As Coach once said, happy monday! Thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter, I replied you all as always :) I don't know if you're gonna like this one, but I felt like I needed to get Nick and Jess closer (?). Any grammar mistake you find, please let me know. Have a nice reading!_

x x x

**8\. Burglar**

_Bzzz. Bzzzz._

Nick rolled over on his bed and slammed his hand onto the nightstand, trying to find his damn phone that was waking him up in the middle of the night. Squinting his eyes because of the screen's bright light, he slowly read the name that appeared on the caller ID. _Jess_.

"What" He answered, still groggy.

_"Nick, help me!"_ Jess whispered on the other side of the line _"I think there's somebody here!"_

Nick fully awoke and sat up on the bed.

"What do you mean there's somebody there Jess, it's three in the morning!"

_"I know"_ She replied, voice low and muffled as if she was under the covers _"but there's someone in the living room. I heard something crashing and I'm pretty sure it was my flower vase, which is near the hallway therefore near my bedroom and I' m 99% sure I'm about to die."_

"Oh my god" Nick rubbed his hand on his face to think. What was he supposed to do, call the police? There was no time, someone was in Jess's apartment at that very moment and he needed to do something. Holding the phone glued to his ear, Nick threw his legs over the bed to the ground and slip his feet into a pair of sneakers.

"I'm coming , okay? Stay with me on the line." He said as he stood up and walked out the door.

"_Alright."_ Was her shaky reply. Nick darted his eyes from corner to corner to try and find Winston's baseball bat, when he remembered it was hidden behind a cabinet exactly for situations like that one. He quickly reached for it and took his keys from the side table.

"I'm crossing the hall, don't leave your room."

_"Nick, the door." _

"What?"

_"My door, it's locked... I mean, it's supposed to."_

"I have your keys, remember? Lucky you I took care of your plants last week while you were away."

She didn't say anything else and Nick paused before unlocking the door.

"Jess?"

"_It's going through my stuff in the kitchen."_ Jess's voice was tense and her breath was heavy. Nick felt an overwhelming urge of just kicking the door open and crush the skull of whoever was in there scaring her, but he was afraid himself and needed to act cool (something he wasn't good at). Taking a deep breath, he said:

"Stay calm and quiet, I'm coming in."

_"Please, be careful."_

"I will."

Again she did not reply, so he turned the key in the lock and put his phone in his pocket. Jess's apartment was almost completely dark, the moonlight that came through the biggest window in the living room being the only source of light that helped Nick see what was going on. He raised the bat in the air, preparing himself to hit whoever he found, when he heard something dropping on the floor, coming from the kitchen. Nick felt his heart beat faster and an intense urge of running away, but he wouldn't leave Jess alone with a burglar - tip toeing to the kitchen, he squeezed his eyes to see in the dark and held tighter to the bat. Another crashing sound was heard and this time it was a heavier object, like a pan or cutting board: whoever it was, was kneeling down behind the kitchen island going through Jess's cabinet of food and could not be seen if Nick didn't take a step ahead. Expecting the worst, Nick walked up towards the sound when a weird ball jumped from behind the island and showed its claws.

"MEOW"

Exhaling a breath he didn't know he was holding, Nick dropped the bat on the ground in relief. It was just Winston's cat, Ferguson, that had been missing since that morning when Winston left the door open for a few minutes. How he ended up in Jess's apartment Nick had no idea, but the worst part was over: it was just a cat.

"Hey, Jess!" Nick called out as he picked up a nervous Ferguson from the ground "It's Winston's cat!"

Quick footsteps were heard and in a few seconds Jess was in the kitchen, turning on the lights. Her eyes were wide like marbles and she looked at the cat in Nick's arms.

"What? That's Ferguson?"

"Yeah, I have no idea how he sneaked into your apartment."

"Thank god it was just a cat." She approached them and lightly patted the animal on the head. Making a childish voice, she said "Sir, you almost made me suffer a panic attack. Don't you ever do that again, uh? Nick here will have to wake up and come pick you up every time you do that."

"Uh, nope, that'll be his owner's job." Nick yawned. The cat started struggling and Nick held him tighter "Alright, let me take this boy back to our loft. You alright, Jess? You seem a little tense..."

"Nah, it's fine." She chuckled nervously.

"People who are fine don't shake like a broken washing machine. Come on, Ferguson scared the hell out of you? He's a nice cat, just a little creepy sometimes but Winston said he's working on it."

"It's just... Ugh. Sometimes I hate being alone at night, that's all. I used to live with Cece before I moved in here and before that I shared a house with an ex boyfriend, so I was never really by myself. I could call you for help though, so I feel better."

Nick stared at her face. He could tell she was still a bit uneasy about the cat incident that just happened, judging by the way she embraced herself and how, when she wasn't looking at him, she searched everywhere in her apartment for, who knows, another cat. Ferguson started scratching Nick's hands with his claws and Nick jumped in pain.

"Awch! What the hell dude!" He held Ferguson in the air, away from him "Jess, just give me a second to take him back to the loft and I'll be back."

"Uh, okay."

Nick quickly made his way out of Jess's apartment and crossed the hall. After opening the door and letting a stressed Ferguson jump from his grasp, Nick went back to 4C and found Jess standing in the exactly same position, with her arms around herself and a pale expression.

"Jess, do you want me to stay here until you fall back asleep?"

Taken aback by Nick's question, she processed what he had just said in her head.

"You mean... Here? With me?"

"Yeah, dummie" He chuckled. When she didn't laugh along, Nick cleared his throat and corrected himself "I mean, it's cool if you don't want to, I was just offering because I thought you didn't..."

"No!" Jess almost yelled, startling Nick. He looked at her with wide eyes and she blushed "I meant to say 'no, it's fine'. I want you to stay."

Nick felt a good feeling in his chest that he didn't know what it was, but hoped, really hoped, it was just a momentary feeling. Recomposing himself, he shoved his hands in his pockets and smiled lightly.

"I'll stay here until you close your eyes then."

They held each other's stare for what felt like an eternity, and then she lightly shook her head.

"I'll get you a pillow and a cover."

He arched an eyebrow.

"Do you take that long to fall asleep?"

"Tonight I do." She sighed "It's okay if you don't want to wait."

Nick walked past Jess and flopped down on her couch, stretching his arms behind his head as if he was lying on his own couch.

"It's comfortable enough here."

She laughed.

"I'll get your things, Miller."

Nick nodded and found himself a cozy position to lie down. Jess's couch was familiar enough to him after so many movie nights with the guys, so he wasn't lying when he said he was comfortable.

"One pillow and one cover coming, sir" Jess came back mimicking a british accent, holding a pillow in one arm and a large pink cover on the other "May I tuck you in?"

Nick frowned.

"What am I, five?"

"Don't ruin the fun."

"Alright, alright."

She laid the cover over Nick's body, humming to herself, and placed the pillow gently behind his head. Nick watched how she made sure he was comfortable and how she genuinely cared and that weird feeling he experienced before made an appearance in his belly again. He closed and opened his eyes to clear his thoughts and looked up at Jess to see her staring at him.

"You okay there?"

"Yup." Was his simple reply. Jess nodded.

"I'm going to sleep then. I guess." she lightly chuckled. After a few seconds of silence, she proceeded "Thanks for everything, Nick. I don't know what I'd do if you weren't around sometimes... You seem to save me whenever I need the most."

"Hey" he reached for her hand and gave it a light squeeze "I told you before, I'll always be here, okay? Just call me and I'll be waiting at your door."

"Okay."

They stared at each other's eyes, in a sign of reassurance, until Jess decided it was time to go and murmured "Good Night" to Nick. He said it back and turned around to face the couch as Jess turned off all the lights; her smell in the pillow and cover was soothing and sweet, which made it easy for him to just close his eyes. When he was about to drift off to sleep, he heard footsteps coming down the hall and the floor lamp near the couch was turned on. Nick rubbed his eyes to see Jess biting down on her lip.

"Is everything okay?" He asked, yawning.

"Uh...I..." She suddenly turned red "I just came here to check if I gave you enough covers. It's kinda cold."

"Jess, it's like 75° outside."

"Yeah, but still... Global warming and stuff. You can feel hot when it's actually cold and burglars can break in and turn on your air conditioner."

Nick lifted the cover and patted the space next to him.

"Come on, lie down."

Jess nervously chuckled. "What?"

"You're mentally freaking out, it's like Schmidt when he sees a spider: even after it's gone, he scans the whole loft scared of the spider coming back to haunt him."

Jess hesitated.

"It's not that I'm freaking out, it's just...How did that cat get in here and how did I not see it? If it was so easy for a small animal, imagine for an actual serial killer! I'll even change my locker tomorrow because who knows, right? I can be there, in the kitchen, heating up water for tea and _bang, _I'm dead!"

Nick shifted to the back of the couch to make more room.

"I'll check your lock tomorrow and ask Winston to put a bell on Ferguson's collar, now lie your butt down, alright?"

Jess pondered about Nick's proposal, and concluded that that spot next to him looked good. She laid down and leaned into Nick's body as he covered them both with her pink cover; Jess was stiff at first, the proximity with Nick feeling like a weird pressure she wasn't expecting for, but as she felt him relaxing and casually resting his arm on top of her hip in a gentle way, she started softening too.

"You're a good big spoon." Jess reclined against Nick's chest further.

"Thanks. Your hair's a good sleep mask."

She chuckled and turned her face up as if she was face to face with him.

"I'm feeling better now."

"Anytime, Jessica."

"Good to know."

Nick didn't say anything else, but Jess felt him smile against her neck. Closing her eyes, she squeezed the hand that was on top of her hip and sighed.

"Good night, Nick."

"Good night, Jess."


	9. Blue Jeans

_Weekend's here and so is a new chapter! Sorry to the anon on tumblr that asked when I was updating and I said thursday: I only got around to finishing the chapter this morning, but I really hope you like it *smiley face* To everyone else, thank you for your reviews, I replied you all. Guests, you don't go unnoticed: Thank you for your kind words!_

_Anyway, this chapter was pretty much inspired by Mac Demarco's song Baby's Wearing Blue Jeans (one of my favorite artists and one of my favorite songs). Don't forget to let me know your thoughts! Thanks and have a nice reading._

_xxx_

**9\. Blue jeans**

Jess was a real gorgeous girl in Nick's point of view. He had no problem complimenting her dress or her hair when they crossed paths in the hallway(but she did have a problem taking them, something he would never understand) and it was a fact she was attractive. He also found her hot but that didn't have to be said out loud - Nick was content to keep that thought to himself. One day though, Jess's level of hotness went up to a whole new scale when she walked into the bar wearing jeans. Skinny blue jeans.

He saw her wearing jeans a couple times before, but those were occasions seen from some distance. Jess would usually wear skirts, dresses or shorts with tights, so when he saw her walking in with Cece, wearing those magical blue jeans that hugged every curve of her legs and showed him what was truly going on... He forgot about everything else around him. Nick only had eyes for Jess.

The girls hopped on the stools next to Schmidt and Winston, who were there keeping Nick company and having a few drinks until it was time to go home. They noticed Jess's choice of jeans too and Schmidt didn't miss the opportunity to express his opinion:

"My, my, Jess is dressed to kill tonight! Who's your target?"

She waved him off and nervously chuckled like she always did when someone complimented her.

"I don't have a target, Schmidt, these are just jeans."

"Hey" Cece elbowed her lightly "They aren't _just jeans_, they are overpriced trendy jeans that make your butt look like it came out of a J Crew catalog."

"Cece got it for me from her last gig." Jess explained and looked down at her own legs "They do look nice though, so thanks guys."

Cece shook her head in amusement and turned to Schmidt and Winston to talk. Nick hadn't uttered a word, too busy pretending he was wiping clean glass shots that had already been cleaned, and Jess leaned over to lightly pull him by his flannel.

"Hey, turtle face" She smiled "You're too quiet there, what's wrong?"

She was sitting, which was great - Nick's eyes could focus on her face and face only without them inadvertently travelling downwards. He cleared his throat and smiled back.

"It's nothing, I just... You know, pouring drinks, cleaning tables. The usual."

Jess rested her chin on her hand and sighed.

"Monday nights, uh?"

"Yeah." Nick sighed and started wiping the counter, distracted "How was your day?"

"It was ... normal?" Jess scrunched up her nose "Too normal, I'd say. Nothing special happened."

"Special? You were waiting for ET's to land and abduct your students or what? I thought grading papers and getting to send kids to detention was _so much_ fun."

She laughed and he couldn't help but laugh along. The sound of her laughter was nice.

"For your information, I've never sent any kid to detention" She puffed out her chest in pride "Sometimes I need to call someone out, but that's it. Fourth graders are nice if you know how to treat them."

"With a teacher like you, I don't think I'd feel like misbehaving." Nick casually commented and threw his cloth over his shoulder "It'd be more like _'let me play the good boy'_"

Jess arched an eyebrow.

"The good boy?"

"Yeah, you know, the classic 'student has a crush on hot teacher' situation."

Jess's mouth formed an "O" in amusement and disbelief. Did Nick just say she was hot?

"Hot teacher? Really?" She put her hands on her hips "You don't think that, stop. Is this about the jeans I'm wearing? I'm really starting to regret wearing this to school today."

Nick stood on his toes to peek at Jess's legs and she swatted him on the arm.

"Hey" he rubbed the spot she hit.

"At least pretend you're not looking, Miller."

" Too much work." He turned his back to her to organize glasses on the cabinet. Taking advantage of the fact he wasn't facing Jess, he went further "But the jeans is just an extra, you know. You are_ really_ pretty."

She didn't reply to what he said and after ten seconds of silence Nick turned around. Jess was biting down her lip and the corners of her mouth had a contained smile threatening to break across her face. He reached out and squeezed her nose, making her giggle. Looking down at her hands, Jess asked:

"Do you really think that?"

"That you're pretty?"

"Yeah"

"I do."

She thought about it for a second.

"Hm."

"What was this? Hm?" He crossed his arms onto the bar and she rolled her eyes, amused. He lifted his eyebrows, waiting for an answer.

"That was a "I'm glad to hear it" hm." She reached out and played with some messy locks of his hair "You're a pretty girl too, Miller."

"Hm."

Winston walked up to them and poked Jess's arm, breaking their intimate bubble. Oblivious to their closeness and holding a beer bottle in his hand, he sat next to Jess on one of the stools.

"I think Schmidt forgot it's monday and he's drinking like there's no tomorrow."

The three of them turned their heads toward a slightly drunk Schmidt. He was holding Cece by her hand and spinning her around the empty space amongst the tables while singing Cotton Eyed Joe, which she seemed to be enjoying as she sang along and laughed. Jess shook her head, chuckling, and turned to Nick.

"Are you closing anytime soon?"

"Uh, ten minutes." He checked the clock on the wall "I'll give you guys a ride if you want to."

"It's okay, we all fit in Schmidt's car." Winston replied "But seriously, who does he think he is? It's monday."

After giving some water to Schmidt ("I am fine, Jesus Christ!") and saying goodbye to Bob, the gang went their separate ways with Nick driving his own car and everyone else in Schmidt's, with Winston on the steering wheel. Within five minutes, they were all taking the elevator to their apartments.

"Jess, wait!" Nick called out as Cece and Jess were about to walk into 4C's. Cece arched one eyebrow and shot her best friend a look, to which she just shrugged in reply.

"I will...wait for you." Cece said and winked knowingly at Nick before closing the door. Jess crossed the hall in small steps and Nick glanced at her blue jeans for the 100th time that night. Damn those jeans and damn his stupid head.

"Yes?" She looked up at him, her hands folded behind her back as if she was a little girl expecting a present. She was so close that Nick had trouble forming the words in his tongue. He knew what he wanted to do and he knew how to do it, but he couldn't find the courage to do so. When Nick still hadn't said anything, Jess frowned and waved her hand in front of his face.

"Nick...?"

He blinked. She smiled and poked his chest.

"Are you gonna say what you want to say or am I spending the night out here in the hallway?"

"No, I..." He caught one of her hands "There's actually something I want to do, not say."

Her smile faded, but not in a bad way. He noticed her throat swallowing hard and she stood still, her eyes glued to his, expecting his next step. She felt his hand tugging hers so she could be closer to him and then...a voice yelled from the other side of 4D's door.

"Nick, you out there?! Schmidt vomited on our rug and it smells like a dead rat in here, I'm gonna need some help cleaning this up!" Winton knocked on their door three times to get Nick's attention. Both Nick and Jess groaned and he let go of her hand - her cheeks were pink and he ran his fingers through his hair, frustrated.

"I'm coming" He yelled back in response. Feeling like the biggest loser on earth, he sighed "I guess I'll see you tomorrow?"

Jess grinned and stood on her tip toes to give him a long, soft kiss on the cheek.

"Yup, you will." She touched his shoulder and walked away back to her apartment. Nick watched the last glimpses of blue jeans and then nothing. Just 4E's door.

"Oh, man." He muttered to himself before pushing open his own door and feeling the terrible smell coming from the rug "SCHMIDT!"

xxx

_N/A: That was close! _


End file.
